We’ve had occasion to mention WDVX a number of times on Bluegrass Today, typically with respect to Blue Plate Special, their noontime live performance program that airs weekdays at 102.9 FM out of Knoxville, TN.

They feature a healthy dose of bluegrass and old time music in their programming, but we want to highlight WDVX today for their support of the Banjer Marching Band, who took part in the April 29 Dogwood Parade in Knoxville. Imagine a couple dozens banjo pickers marching along the parade route… that would be hard to ignore!

Jack Hatfield, who manages Hatfield Music in nearby Pigeon Forge, was brought in to lead the bluegrass folks, and Matt Morelock, one of the hosts of Blue Plate Special, managed the old timey pluckers.

The station posted a few photos online; does this qualify as cruel and unusual?

The concept of bluegrass “success” is a subjective one, especially in a world where the majority of bluegrass professionals hold at least an off-season day job (for what it’s worth, this was once true of professional athletes, too). Last week, I suggested that you can […]

The fires in Gatlinburg have been extinguished, but the flame of hope still burns brightly. This year’s edition of Christmas in the Smokies, presented by Lorraine Jordan and Carolina Road, kicked off Wednesday afternoon. Lorraine announced that the festival will be making a substantive donation […]

Since making the decision to pursue music full-time in 2011, Callahan, Florida’s Harris family – better known as Trinity River Band – has experienced quite a run of success. With songs like Better than Blue, How Blue, and Rusty Old American Dream receiving frequent airplay […]

This review of the Al Ras Bluegrass Festival is a contribution from Spanish banjoist, educator, and composer, Lluis Gomez. The fifteenth edition of Al Ras Bluegrass Festival took place this November in Barcelona and Mollet del Vallès (Barcelona, Spain). Al Ras is the oldest bluegrass festival in […]

For this reviewer, the most anticipated album of 2016 has been this self-titled, debut project from Heidi & Ryan on Mountain Fever Records. It’s been on my mind since I first saw them perform live at the SPBGMA convention in Nashville this past winter, and […]

In March 2015 we reported on the charitable work that the Ocotillo Rain and Thunder Bluegrass Band was doing. Recently we learned that they had collected over $10,000 in two years. That’s a remarkable achievement. Members of the 11-piece southern Arizona bluegrass band have been […]

December 1, 2016, marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of Carter Stanley, described as an Appalachian mountain musical legend. With the passage of five decades, fewer of us have been alive long enough to have seen Carter Stanley onstage, some may have done so, […]

It is serendipity when one’s name matches one’s being and the natural reaction of all those in his presence. When John Cowan sings any note the reflexive response of all within earshot is “Holy Cow.” Wow. Can anyone’s voice be that good? Yes, Cowan’s can. […]

This article is a contribution from Kevin Richardson, guitarist with The Larry Stephenson Band. He shares a few words about he has achieved his dream of becoming a professional bluegrass performer. Born in Pinehurst, NC in 1979, I missed some of the best bluegrass ever played. I’m […]

Being a bluegrass fan can be a curious thing. Some folks are born into it, listening to mom and dad play Flatt & Scruggs before they’re even out of the hospital. Others sort of just fall into it – perhaps they heard it on the radio, […]

It’s hard to keep a good man down in bluegrass music (although we all do like to be lonesome now and then), and radio broadcaster Larry Roberts is a prime example of that. Roberts has been a DJ for almost thirty years, and for the […]

Bluegrass is sometimes viewed as music for old fogies. The emphasis on tradition, the lack of electric instruments, the sheer lonesomeness of it all – it’s not Katy Perry or Justin Beiber, that’s for sure. In the past several years, however, it seems like more […]